After 119 years, historical society disbands

After 119 years, the Liverpool Historical Society has given up the ghost.

Established in 1894 by local teacher Anna O’Neill, the LHS disbanded in September.

The society had its roots in the Chautauqua movement, an adult-education crusade spawned at Lake Chautauqua in the Southwestern corner of the Empire State. The movement, spurred by its most popular speaker William Jennings Bryant, became immensely popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

In the early 1890s, O’Neill had apparently attended lectures at Chautauqua and spread its gospel to Liverpool where she created historical society to encourage self-education among women. Members were required to present short programs on topics regarding local history.

While the society thrived for the entire 20th century, according to Village Historian Dorianne Elitharp Gutierrez, in recent years its membership has dwindled and its treasury has depleted.

“For many years, the society met in members’ homes, but for the past several years they’ve been meeting in the dining room at the Liverpool First United Methodist Church and at Liverpool Public Library,” Gutierrez said. “Its membership is aging, so a lot of the members spend half the year in Florida, so it has been difficult getting members to serve as officers.”

The group’s last president was the effervescent Connie Ostuni, who lives in Liverpool on First Street. “Over the years our members have enjoyed the fellowship, the food and the information,” she said. Back in 2005, the ladies published a directory in celebration of the village’s 175th birthday.

The society’s final meeting was a June picnic at the gazebo in Washington Park.

Though it also faces similar challenges as the society did, the Historical Association of Greater Liverpool forges on. HAGL, now headed by President Joan Cregg, operates the Willow Museum on Second Street during the summer. The group is scheduling a reorganization meeting this month at the Gleason Mansion.

Plenty of hopeful job-seekers turned out last week at the soon-to-open Empire Sub Shop, at 510 Oswego St. Employment open houses were conducted Sept. 23, 25 and 27.

Operated by Bob Greene Jr. and his partners at the world-famous Oswego Sub Shop, the upcoming eatery will serve more than 65 varieties of subs, sandwiches and wraps, as well as salads soups, chicken wings and desserts. Their breads, sub rolls and pastries will all be freshly made at the shop’s on-site bakery.

And here’s some even better news: the Empire Sub Shop will be open late every night often until 2:30 a.m. and until 3 a.m. Thursday through Saturday; empiresubshop.com.

At the young age of 16, actress Amanda Hebblethwaite has been typecast. She plays dead people.

Last fall, the teenage thespian performed in the “Lakeside” ghostwalk staged here by Onondaga Historical Association. Amanda portrayed Grace Crawford, a follower of Father William Miller, a New England preacher who had imprecisely predicted the end of the world in 1844.

Amanda, who lives in Liverpool, appeared last month in “Salt City Spirits,” OHA’s historic ghostwalk down city.

She played Mary Elizabeth Evans Sharp (1884-1985) who became one of the youngest businesswomen in America in 1903 when she established her Mary Elizabeth candy company at the University Block in downtown Syracuse. She had yet to turn 20.

As first reported in the Star-Review in July, the Liverpool Community Church wants to sell the Zogg Building which served as Liverpool High School for decades. The church bought it from the Liverpool Central School District in 2003.

The two blocks of property bounded by Fourth, Sixth, Birch and Hickory streets is being handled by Cushman & Wakefield, a New York City real-estate firm; 445-1030.